I’ve baked this loaf, or some variant of it, so many times I’ve lost count. This bread was born when I first got my hands dirty with flour and water. Its parent—if you could call it that—was originally Chad Robertson’s Tartine loaf with his liquid levain, brought to life, not with intensive kneading, but rather a series of folds during bulk fermentation.
My best sourdough recipe has grown since then. It has developed a personality of its own as I’ve expanded my baking repertoire and investigated the many facets of baking naturally leavened sourdough. It’s taken on and lost traits from many great bakers out there, borrowing from their inspiration and giving me a direction to raise this bread into something of my own. This bread is one that doesn’t entirely taste like anything else I’ve had, and yet, still employs many of the same processes and ingredients.
That’s one of the greatest things about bread: it can taste and look dramatically different just by changing the two hands that create it. Calling this post “my best sourdough recipe” is a lofty claim, but honestly, I do believe this is the best bread I’ve made thus far.
I sometimes revisit a discussion I had with a few readers of this site and their comments: “bread is just bread, it’s something to be eaten and is something life-giving, isn’t that enough?” I agree, but when something becomes a passion for you it’s important to set lofty goals and get excited when breakthroughs are made. Isn’t that the definition of a craft and the relentless honing required?
I’ve taken my best sourdough recipe from its most nascent form to its current stage and can trace through the years each change to its formula or process — and I’m sure I’ll be changing things well into the future as it continues to evolve — a work-in-progress.
Yes it’s excessive in some way, but there’s an excessiveness to ambition as well.
John Mayer
Maybe the actual recipe for this bread isn’t the most important part, but rather, the lessons and insights learned along the way as I continually hone my baking proficiency. I’m not claiming this recipe will yield the perfect loaf every single time, but I dare say it comes the closest for me—and that’s exciting.
This bread is the bread that I want to make the most often, the one my family asks for the most often, and the one I share most often. I have a special place for whole wheat bread, and taste-wise, it might make me want to call that my favorite one day, but the versatility of this bread is pretty hard to beat. In fact, I bake this so often that my freezer has an entire shelf lined with pre-sliced loaves wrapped and in bags labeled pane perfetto.
While the actual formula for my best sourdough recipe is simply a mix of flour, water, salt, and levain, there are many nuances here to pay close attention to; here are a few key things to successfully making this bread:
- An active starter
- An autolyse
- A high hydration
- Sufficient dough strength
- A warm and complete bulk fermentation
- A long, cold proof
Before writing this post, I pulled out my trusty notebook (or use my free baker’s note sheet!) and paged through the handwritten (and flour-ridden) pages to find any scribbled “ah-ha” moments or little notes jotted down in the margin, along with a few curse words peppered throughout, and have bundled them up into this entry (sans curse words to keep it clean). A compendium of sorts containing my insights, breakthroughs, and ah-ha moments.
My best sourdough recipe doesn’t require an exotic blend of hard-to-find flour, a complicated multi-step levain build, or the use of a mechanical mixer. It’s built around making this bread in your home kitchen.
My best sourdough recipe is very highly hydrated and can be challenging. When mixing, be watchful for the signs and adjust the dough hydration to suit your environment and flour. If you’re not used to working with high-hydration dough, please start with hydration somewhere in the middle and slowly work up.
Flour Selection
I’ve tried a lot of flour out there (and am an avid user of freshly milled flour), indeed not everything there is, but I’ve ordered enough now that the UPS guy thinks I might have a bakery in my backyard. I have baked some great bread with Hayden Flour Mills, Central Milling, and Giusto’s. I’ve also had great success with King Arthur Baking high-protein white flour.
I have consistently made incredible loaves with Giusto’s flour; I only wish it were organic. Nevertheless, I find myself ordering a box of it here and there and enjoying the results every time. Of course, as I mentioned before, try whatever is local first (sadly, my source for local, organic flour is no longer available) and whatever you like.
When trying new flour, remember to hold back more water than you might otherwise, and then slowly add it in at the end of mixing or throughout bulk fermentation. Now, on to my best sourdough recipe.
Watch Me Make This From Start To Finish
I absolutely love this bread and make it often, but it can be challenging for first-time bakers. Be sure to watch my YouTube video below for a look at how I handle the dough and every step of the process.
If you’re brand new to baking sourdough, check out my Beginner’s Sourdough Bread recipe; it has in-depth information on every step in the baking process. Then come back and bake this!
My Best Sourdough Recipe
Vitals
| Total Dough Weight | 1,800 grams |
| Pre-fermented Flour | 6.4% |
| Levain percentage in final dough | 17.1% |
| Hydration | 85.0% |
| Yield | Two 900g loaves |
Total Formula
The target final dough temperature (FDT) is 78°F (25°C). This dough loves a warm ambient environment. Try to keep the dough at the listed temperatures if possible; use your oven with its light on inside, your microwave with a bowl of steaming water, or a proofer. I use my instant-read thermometer to check the dough temperature periodically throughout bulk.
For more information on how to calculate DDT, monitor temperature, and maintain temperature have a look at my post on The Importance of Dough Temperature in Baking.
| Weight | Ingredient | Baker’s Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 852g | Medium-protein bread flour (~11.5% protein, Giusto’s Artisan Bread Flour) | 90.00% |
| 94g | Whole wheat flour (Giusto’s Organic Stoneground Whole Wheat) | 10.00% |
| 710g | Water 1 | 75.00% |
| 95g | Water 2 | 10.00% |
| 17g | Salt | 1.80% |
| 30g | Ripe sourdough starter (100% hydration) | 3.20% |
As I mentioned above, my best sourdough recipe is an extremely high hydration. If this is your first time working with this recipe, reduce the total water or hold water back during mixing to ensure your dough can handle the addition. The amount of water your dough will handle will vary based on your particular flour and environment—play it safe the first few bakes and work the water up gradually once you get a feel for the dough.
My Best Sourdough Recipe Method
1. Levain – 9:00 a.m.
Build the liquid levain in the morning and store somewhere warm around 77-80°F (25-26°C) ambient for 5 hours.
| Weight | Ingredient | Baker’s Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 30g | Ripe sourdough starter (100% hydration) | 50% |
| 30g | Medium-protein bread flour (~11.5% protein, Giusto’s Artisan Bread Flour) | 50% |
| 30g | Whole wheat flour (Giusto’s Organic Stoneground Whole Wheat) | 50% |
| 60g | Water | 100% |
If you haven’t yet read through my post on my sourdough starter maintenance routine, check it out for some helpful hints on what to look for when your sourdough starter and levain are ripe and ready to use.
2. Autolyse – 12:00 p.m.
This highly hydrated dough can be mixed by hand or with a mechanical mixer (like a home spiral mixer). Either one will yield great results, but here, I’ll discuss mixing this dough by hand.
Mix the flour and water in a bowl until all the dry bits are incorporated, then cover. Ensure all the dry flour is hydrated—store near levain (we want the dough’s temperature to remain warm).
| Weight | Ingredient |
|---|---|
| 822g | Medium-protein bread flour |
| 64g | Whole wheat flour |
| 650g | Water 1 |
3. Mix – 2:00 p.m.
| Weight | Ingredient |
|---|---|
| 95g | Water 2 |
| 17g | Fine sea salt |
| 151g | Ripe liquid levain (see above) |
Add the ingredients to your dough in the mixing bowl that underwent an autolyse. Add the water slowly, in stages, while you’re mixing, and stop adding water if the dough feels excessively wet or soupy at any point.
Perform folds for about 2-3 minutes in the bowl. Grab under one side, pull up and over to the other side, then rotate the bowl a bit and repeat. I do this probably 30 times or so (it goes fast and easy). In the end, the dough should still be shaggy, but it will be more smooth and will start to hold itself together more in the bowl.
If you’re a fan of the slap & fold mixing technique I’ve described in the past, you can do this but be aware that it is difficult at this hydration. It’s best to first slap and fold the dough without adding all the reserved water to get the dough smooth and strong. Then, return the dough to the mixing bowl and slowly add the remaining water while folding the dough.
I find that the correct level of dough strength at this point is important. You want the dough to be smooth, elastic, and strong, but it doesn’t have to be fully developed, and it will still be shaggy. We will continue to strengthen the dough through stretch and folds in bulk fermentation.
Transfer dough to a tub or thick-walled bowl for bulk fermentation.
5. Bulk Fermentation – 2:15 p.m. to 6:15 p.m.
At 78°F (25°C) ambient temperature, bulk fermentation should go for about 4 hours. Perform six sets of stretch and folds during the bulk. The first three are at 15-minute intervals, and the last three are at 30-minute intervals. After these folds (2 hours and 15 minutes have gone by), let the dough rest for the remainder of bulk fermentation.
I stretch and fold more vigorously at the beginning of bulk than usual since it is extraordinarily slack and extensible (due to this recipe’s high hydration and autolyse). Pick up one side of the dough with both hands and pull it up, just before tearing, and fold it over to the other side. Rotate your container and repeat 4 or 5 times. That is one set.
Above, you can see my best sourdough recipe dough halfway through bulk, after about 2 hours. There is no significant rise as of yet, but the edges are beginning to dome downward, and the dough’s texture is smoothing out slightly. We still have several more folds to do and more strength to build.
It is essential that the dough is kept near 78°F (25°C) as much as possible (minor fluctuations up and down are ok). If temperatures dip down too far, you might have to extend the bulk fermentation duration to compensate, and vice versa. Use your judgment, the signs described below, and be flexible.
At the end of bulk, your dough should look very gassy, with some bubbles here and there, and the edges where the dough meets the bowl should be slightly domed. You can see all these signs in the image above.
When you gently shake the bowl, the entire mass jiggles from side to side—very alive. You’ll also notice that compared with the photo at the beginning of bulk, the dough is smoother and holds its edges, folds, and creases more readily (most of the bumps and ridges you see are due to trapped gasses from fermentation).
6. Divide & Preshape – 6:15 p.m.
Divide the dough into two halves and gently preshape each piece of dough into a round. Then, let the dough rest for 30 minutes, uncovered. Act quickly when handling this dough and rely heavily on your bench knife. I try to use my hands as little as possible when dealing with the dough at this point.
7. Shape – 6:45 p.m.
Lightly flour the top of your dough rounds and flour the work surface. With this recipe use a little more flour on the surface than normal, the dough will be extremely sticky and wet. Flip each round and shape into a batard (see notes below) or boule, whatever your preference.
Here’s a video of how I shape a bâtard. With this dough, be sure to use the “slack dough” shaping method since the dough is such high hydration.
I prefer to shape these as batards, and my shaping method is as follows:
- Flip pre-shaped round
- Fold the bottom up to about halfway
- Fold the left side over to about 3/4 to the right
- Fold the right side over to cover left
- Stretch top up & away from the center and fold down to about half (you’ll now have a “letter”)
- Grab a little of the dough at the sides near the top and stretch it over the center, so the dough crosses. Imagine lacing up a shoe where you first grab your laces and cross them over
- Repeat three times from top to bottom (the result will look like a laced up shoe)
- Take the bottom and gently roll the dough up to the top and try to seal it slightly when done rolling
Alternatively, if the dough feels pretty strong, you could shape it by “cinching” up the dough. For more instruction on how to shape this dough as an oblong loaf, see my post on how to shape a batard (with video!).
After shaping, let the dough rest on the bench for a few minutes and then place it into a banneton that is lightly dusted with white flour. You’ll see above my bannetons give the dough plenty of room to relax and expand in the fridge overnight. If your proofing container is on the smaller side, and you find your dough almost spilling over the edges, it might be time for a larger basket.
8. Proof – 7:25 p.m. to 9:00 a.m., the next day
Cover your banneton with plastic and place it in the refrigerator at 38°F (3°C) overnight.
9. Bake – Next Morning: Preheat oven at 8:00 a.m., Bake at 9:00 a.m.
Preheat your oven to 450°F (230°C). Remove the dough from the fridge (there’s no need to let the dough come to room temperature) and uncover. I scored the dough with a single, long slash to get that dramatic opening when baked. I keep the blade at a reasonably shallow angle so the taut skin created during shaping will “peel” back as the loaf rises.
I steamed my oven in my usual way, described here in my post on how to steam your home oven for baking. But you can also bake in a pot or Dutch oven.
Bake for 20 minutes with steam, then remove your steaming pans if baking on a surface or Dutch oven/combo cooker lid. Then, bake for an additional 30 minutes until done to your liking. I like to bake rather dark, so I sometimes extend this second half of baking until I get the crust I’m looking for.
Once your loaf is done, remove and let cool on a wire rack for 1-2 hours. See my post on the best way to store the bread after it’s baked for a few tips on keeping it on the counter and freezing if you think you won’t get through both loaves in a week.
Conclusion
It’s hard to put into words just how much I enjoy this “my best sourdough recipe.” I bake it almost every week (sometimes multiple times if baking for friends and family), and yet every time I pull it from the oven, I smile. The crust color, the open and light interior, only the smallest perception of sour notes, and the way it crunches when toasted. I could go on and on.
The photos to follow are the results of scattered recent bakes that all followed this process exactly and have a slightly different outcome. You’ll notice some are a bit darker, some have more or less flour on them, some expand differently in the oven, and some are taller and some are shorter—that’s the nature of baking.
With baking, every single bake is different no matter how consistent you try to be. It’s the same with my Dad and his Italian restaurant, and the reason I’ll sometimes get a call in the middle of the afternoon: “hey, the pizza dough is incredible today, you should head over and grab some.”
Crust
As a kid, I was known to take slices of bread, cut out the center, and eat the crust. It used to anger my family because they’d reach into the breadbasket only to find slices of only the soft parts. That’s how much I love the crust! Can you blame me, though?
I enjoy bread with a chunky, chewy crust, but this bread with its delicate and cracker-like crust takes the top spot for me. Even though I bake these rather dark, the crust remains thin and brittle, crackling under the slightest pressure. I love using the “heel” (the very end) of this bread to eat soup or combined with hefty slices of cheese. It’s delicious.
Crumb
I think there’s a balance to be had with bread like this. It’s possible to let the crumb open up too much, but for me, this is just right. Scattered open areas with that translucent webbing spanning from wall-to-wall, a dynamic movement to these areas, almost show you how shaping was carried out.
Taste
This bread has an almost imperceptible hint of sour, and because of this, the wheat flavors from the flour come forward. It has an incredibly tender, soft crumb that almost dissolves in your mouth. It’s one of those rare foods whereupon taking that first bite your mouth begins to water.
In the end, bread is just bread. But it’s also the staff of life and has been for thousands of years. It’s is also more than the sum of the ingredients you add to the mixing bowl. It’s how it makes you feel when you give some to a friend, and they grin ear-to-ear as they take a big bite. It’s the knowledge that you created this thing over a few days that once was a lump on your counter and is now an incredibly delicious food meant to be shared. To me, this is real bread and my best sourdough recipe to date.
Buon appetito!
Print
My Best Sourdough Recipe
- Prep Time: 24 hours
- Cook Time: 55 minutes
- Total Time: 24 hours 55 minutes
- Yield: 2 loaves
- Category: Sourdough, Bread
- Cuisine: American
Description
This sourdough bread is one of my favorite recipes. It’s a highly hydrated dough that results in a loaf with an open and lacey interior contrasted by a thin, crispy crust.
Ingredients
Levain
- 30g medium-protein bread flour
- 30g whole wheat flour
- 60g water
- 30g ripe sourdough starter
Main Dough
- 822g medium-protein bread flour
- 64g whole wheat flour
- 745g water
- 17g salt
- 151g ripe levain
Instructions
- Levain (9:00 a.m.)
In a small container, mix the levain ingredients and keep at 78°F (25°C) for 5 hours. - Autolyse (12:00 p.m)
In a medium mixing bowl, add 822g medium-protein bread flour, 64g whole wheat flour, 650g water, and mix until no dry bits remain. Cover the bowl and let rest for 2 hours. - Mix (2:00 p.m.)
To the mixing bowl holding your dough, add 95g water (holding back any as necessary if the dough is too wet), 17g sea salt, and the ripe levain (from step 1). Pinch and mix all the ingredients together and do folds in the bowl for 2 to 3 minutes until the dough smooths and is cohesive. Then, transfer your dough to a bulk fermentation container and cover. - Bulk Fermentation (2:15 p.m. to 6:15 p.m.)
Give the dough 6 sets of stretch and folds. The first three sets are at 15-minute intervals, and the last three sets are at 30-minute intervals. - Divide and Preshape (6:15 p.m.)
Lightly flour your work surface and scrape out your dough. Using your bench knife, divide the dough in half. Lightly shape each half into a round shape. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes, uncovered. - Shape (6:45 p.m.)
Shape the dough into a round (boule) or oval (batard) and place it in proofing baskets. Cover the baskets with a reusable plastic bag. - Proof (7:25 p.m. to 9:00 a.m. the next day)
Cover proofing baskets with reusable plastic and seal them shut. Then, place both baskets into the refrigerator and proof overnight. - Bake (Preheat oven at 8:00 a.m., bake at 9:00 a.m.)
I steamed my oven in my usual way, described here in my post on how to steam your home oven for baking. But you can also bake in a pot or Dutch oven. Preheat your oven with a combo cooker or Dutch oven inside to 450°F (230°C). Remove your dough from the fridge, score it, and transfer it to the preheated combo cooker. Place the cooker in the oven, cover with the lid, and bake for 20 minutes. After this time, remove the lid (you can keep it in the oven or remove it) and continue to bake for 30 minutes longer. When done, the internal temperature should be around 208°F (97°C). Let the loaves cool for 2 hours on a wire rack before slicing.
Notes
This is a very highly hydrated dough. Don’t add in all the reserved water during mixing if it feels like the dough is becoming overly weak, slack, or soupy.
What’s Next?
If you want more help getting an open crumb with this bread, I’ve created a 100+ page book with step-by-step instructions. Learn the best flour to use, the right fermentation schedule, and all my tips in my Bread Baker’s Handbook.
Are you a TPL Member? If so, the handbook is free for you!
2,142 Comments
I used French flour and seems like the extra water wasn’t necessary.
Yes, with French flour, which I’ve found doesnt have as high of a protein percentage and a little more sensitive to water, I’d definitely hold back! Hope the loaves turned out great 🙂
Oh my … I wish I could post pictures! I’m in San Francisco and I always have to adjust my hydration down a bit, so I was very cautious here and only used about 40 grams of the extra water. Cannot wait to cut into these loaves and see what the interior is like … they are the most beautiful bread that has come out of my oven in years!! Thank you so much, Maurizio!!
So amazing, glad to hear these turned out great for you, Fey!
If you end up needing to put the dough in the fridge for part of bulk fermentation, should you also use the fridge once shaped?
You can do both if you’d like, or just one!
I have a question about the texture of the crumb for your “My Best Sourdough Recipe” loaf. When I make it, I bake in cast iron, so the crust is beautiful, deep brown and tasty. The question that I have is about the crumb. The bread seems to be completely baked, but the crumb remains sticky. Is this right, or do I need to make adjustments?
Are you waiting for it to cool completely? Using a thermometer until it’s room temp. Or just wait overnight.
I always wait until the next day. That’s why I don’t understand the stickiness. It even coats my bread knife after a few slices.
I baked again and increased the baking time by 10 minutes in the cast iron. Same result
Delete- just saw your response….
You could try baking the dough longer but at a lower temperature to ensure the dough bakes all the way through. If it’s still sticky inside, you might want to try dropping the hydration just a bit!
Thanks Maurizio, I’ll give that a try. It seems to make sense because my oven tends to run a little hot
Hey There, love the site and all the information. But I’ve tried making this a few times and I’m confused by the total formula. It says 853 g bread flour (recipe only calls for 822g bread flower?), 95g whole wheat (recipe only calls for 64g whole wheat?), 711g water one (recipe only calls for 650g?), and 95g water 2 (this is the same in the recipe). The salt is also the same in the total formula versus the actual recipe. Am I understanding something wrong? The flower in the total formula is a lot higher and so is the water?
———–
I went back for a second look and figured that the 853 is the 822 from the recipe plus the 30 from the levain? However, that would make it 852g, not 853g. Same is the whole wheat. It would be 94g (64g + 30 = 94g). Same with water it would be 650g plus 60 which is 710g? Or am I still misunderstanding something?
Hey, Hannah! Sorry for the confusion. Your updated comments are correct, there are one-off errors due to rounding in my spreadsheets. I’ve gone through the recipe to fix them! Thanks for sending this in. As you can imagine, rounding errors can be pesky! They show as correct in my sheet, but when I transcribe them here and round up/down, sometimes there’s a small error.
No worries. Thanks for the quick response. I was mostly confused by the total formula and how it was different from the recipe formula, but after staring it for quite some time I realized the total formula included the flour and water used to create the levain. So it makes sense now. I have had to decrease the water quite a lot – my loafs are super wet and sloppy and don’t have any dough strength at all. I made it first with all of the water 2, second time I made it with only 15g, the third time I made it with none of water 2 and had add a bit of flour. This third time seems to be better. The loafs taste great the the first few were very flat because they couldn’t hold their shape.
One question I have is if I need to preshape before putting the dough in the fridge? like if it’s late at night, can I just put it in the fridge and than preshape it the next day? And if I do that do I need to let it proof again after shaping it the next day?
Yup, that’s exactly right: the Total Formula includes the levain AND the dough mix itself.
You can do that (essentially putting the fridge in bulk into the fridge) but it cant be too late into bulk fermentation, in my experience. For example, instead of doing a 3.5 hour bulk I’d do 2.5 or 3 hours then place the large dough in the fridge. The next day, take it out, divide, let it warm up to room temp, then shape and finish proofing. Timing is key with doing it this way and it does get tricky, but with practice you can get the hang of it!
hmmm confusing. What happens if you do the fridge to far into the bulk? It is tricky to figure out what happens if you change one part of the equation. I guess this is where practice and trial and error comes in.
The risk is the dough over proofs by the time you take it out, divide, shape, and let it sit. But yes, it all really depends on how the dough is that day and in the kitchen… Lots of variables! I have a few recipes here at the site where I do a “cold bulk,” like baguettes, to give you an idea!
Hey dude, thanks for the blog. I have had a similar experience to some folks here. The dough during the shaping process yesterday and this morning after cold proofing overnight has been really loose. I tried shaping them as tight as I could. Is it fair to assume I need to make sure my starter is more active before using and also extend bulk fermentation? At the end of bulk fermentation the dough looked very bubbly at the top and it domed really nicely.
For the starter I followed the weekend baking schedule. Took the starter out fed it twice. First feed the activity level was great, second feed was the night before starting the levin, in the morning it was 3/4 of the way to its max. Maybe something to fix there?
It sounds like your dough is most likely over hydrated—your flour likely isn’t able to take on quite a much water, and that’s ok! Try reducing the hydration by 5% and give it another go—the reduced water should bring strength to the dough and you’ll feel it immediately. Once you find a suitable hydration, you can try to push it back up (if desired), but as you do, take note of how the consistency of the dough changes: the dough will start to slacken out as you add more and more water, this means you’ll likely have to mix more upfront or add another set or two of stretch and folds during bulk fermentation.
Generally, with an increased hydration, you need to mix longer to develop the gluten in the dough to sufficiently support the water added, but this only goes so far. At some point, the flour you’re using just isn’t able to take on any more water and you’ll essentially have a weak and slack dough. It’s always best to start conservatively and work your way up with hydration as you feel out your flour. This is typically why I recommend holding back water during mixing, adding it in as the dough handles it.
Try to keep everything else as consistent as possible and let me know how the next attempt goes!
Can you autolyze with the levain mixed in? Adding water and levain after the autolyze made it very wet and sticky. I’ve used other recipes where I autolyze with starter, water, flour and then add salt later before the bulk fermentation and stretching.
I hear ya, Matt, it can be a little challenging to mix that in. You can autolyse with the levain added, but know that doing this will mean fermentation begins. That means if you did that with this recipe AND followed my timeline, your dough will likely be over proofed by the time it gets to the end of proofing.
Hi Maurizio, Your site is incredible. I can’t tell you how helpful it has been – thank you! Can your Best SD Bread recipe be adapted to an overnight levain kept at 65F? My schedule requires that I have the loaves in the fridge for their overnight proof by 4PM. Should the % of flour/water/starter be adjusted to use less starter like the overnight levain for your cranberry walnut sourdough? And should the 1:5:5 starter ratio be adjusted when left overnight at 65F? My proofing box is a Breville toaster oven that automatically shuts off after two hours, so I can’t use it overnight.
Thank you, Lana! Glad to hear it’s been helpful. Yes, that should work. I would probably do an overnight levain at room temp (74F or so), but drop the amount of starter in the levain down to 20%.
Hi Maurizio,
I am a new member and new to SD baking. Just used your Best SD Bread recipe. My levain weighed in at 136 grams max and your recipe called for 151 grams. What should I do about that? Fortunately (?) I was able to add some starter stored in the fridge. Your thoughts?
Welcome, Robert! Thanks for joining. It’s ok if it’s a little under, don’t worry, just give the dough longer in bulk if necessary (less levain will typically mean it needs more time to properly ferment).
Hi Maurizio, I just moved from about 5000 feet to about 7800 feet in elevation and wondering if you had any suggestions for how to adjust the recipe for higher elevation? What I get from my research so far is that things are drying and they proof faster, but any suggestions are much appreciated. Thanks!
Lots of suggestions, Sarah! Check out my guide to baking at high alt 🙂
Thanks!
I just cut into this, my first high-hydration loaf. I’ve never seen so many big holes. And the crust is crackling crisp, but thinner than my other loaves, with a chewy inside texture that is more than pleasing. Looks like I’ve graduated from beginner status. 🙂 Thanks for the great recipe and for being such a good instructor.
So glad to hear that, Patty! Enjoy!
Hi Maurizio….I made 2 loaves of bread today using your recipe. I also wrote to you earlier asking about dividing a recipe in half. I have another question. I baked 1 loaf in a cast iron pot and after the first 20 mins of baking I took the lid off and was excited to see the biggest loaf I have ever made, it was gorgeous, followed your recipe to the “t”. Then continued to cook for the remainder of time. When it was time to remove from the oven I was disappointed to see it wasn’t as big anymore. What happened? I must say it taste very good but was a bit shocked to see it shrunk. It does taste delicious, I must say.
It’s a high chance that second loaf over proofed (I hope you kept it in the fridge!).
Hi Maurizio. I just baked two loaves of this bread and it’s gorgeous….but have not cut into as yet. My question to you is: can I make one loaf by literally cutting the recipe (all ingredients) in half. I realize you can freeze the loaves but I would ideally like to bake just 1 loaf. I refer to your website often, so thank you for your recipes and thank you for all your comments, which are so helpful.
Do you have a version of this recipe that has less than 10:25 of active time before placing in the fridge for the cold proof? I don’t always have time to stay at home from 9:00AM to 7:25PM, but do like to have sourdough with character. I’ve followed FoodGeek’s recipe with rye to much success, but am looking for other options as well to expand my options. I realize there’s a couple of hours here and a couple of hours there with this method that one could try to work around for quick errands, but that is a little difficult with my schedule.
Hey, Luke! Check out my simple weekday sourdough bread, it’s a shorter process!
Hi Maurizio! Wondering if you might be able to diagnose this crumb for me… I dropped the hydration to about 78% on this one, but otherwise followed the recipe to a tee (including temps and times). The shaping method described here was a bit new to me and I can’t tell if this was underproofed or poorly shaped… any guesses?
It looks like perhaps your dough was slightly underproofed. There are a few indicators your dough could be under: explosive rise in the oven, dense spots in the interior with potentially scattered large holes, and a gummy texture to the interior. Finally, it’s possible the bottom of the loaf might be slightly bowed upward (like the letter “U” — the top will kind of dome).
Make sure to build your levain from a starter that’s strong and mature (meaning it’s risen to it’s peak height before you take some to use). From there, bulk fermentation is very important! Make sure your bulk fermentation goes sufficiently far, you want the dough to look smooth, it should have risen considerably, and have bubbles here and there — it should look alive. If you tug on the dough a bit it should offer resistance to your tugging, it’ll feel stronger. Give the dough the time it needs in bulk fermentation! If you have to give it another 30m or hour to see these signs, do so. It’s important for this step to go sufficiently far for the dough to have enough fermentation activity before its proof.
Half way through bulk and dough is very slack. Is there any way I can save these loaves?
I would say give it another set or two of stretches and folds, preshape it *very* tightly, and it should hold it’s shape! If in the morning the dough looks super slack, you can always drop the dough into a pan and bake a sandwich loaf! Or, pivot and spread it out to focaccia if it’s very slack.
I LOVE this recipe! Every time I make it it’s amazing, and that is not owing to my baking skills 🙂 This definitely beats all the other sourdough recipes I’ve made. Thanks for it!
So glad to hearr that, Kaden!
The formula calls for 853g white, 95g whole wheat and 805g water, yet the written instructions call for 822g white, 64g whole wheat and 650g water. Can someone explain the discrepancy – or am I missing something?
Thank you.
He has included the levain flour quantities in the main ingredients as well, however I only realised this AFTER I’d measured it all out, then realising the main ingredients didn’t match the recipe, I checked! Arghh! My wholemeal is covered by white.
The ingredient list on the main recipe needs to be altered!!! Please?!
I’ve baked this bread any number of times, and in fact I’m preparing four loaves as I write. The first section, noted as “Total Formula” is exactly that; the sum of all the ingredients in every stage of preparation. This is the “Baker’s Formula”; at least the expression in percentages is. All baking guides worthy of their salt (pun intended) provide this, see Jeffrey Hamelman etc. I often bake double or treble the indicated quantity, and this total formula is a super-useful tool, once you get used to it. Just follow the quantity in the sections (levain etc.) and you won’t go wrong. Another advantage of the total formula is that you can see the hydration, which generally gives a rough sense (allowing for flour varieties and handling) of how the dough will behave. If you know that the flour you are using isn’t especially absorbent, knowing the hydration will give you a sense of whether to hold back on some water during the final additions.
A wise comment. I just need to remember which part I’m looking at when I do it in a hurry.
The error is now fixed! Sorry about that.
There was an error, it’s now fixed!
Has this been fixed? I still see the same discrepancies Rosie17 mentioned above…?
I love making this recipe and I’ve
gotten to the point where I consistently get a good oven spring and open crumb, but slicing has become a nightmare! I always seem to end up with a tacky, sticky texture inside and my (shun – very sharp) bread knife just gets all gunked up. Especially when I get to the bottom crust it takes me like 10 strokes to get through it lol. Is there anything I can do to make the texture inside fluffier/less tacky? I’m leaving them to cool overnight before slicing and it’s still just so difficult
Strange. Letting it cool is exactly the right move. My other guesses: under proofed loaves can present as gummy/sticky inside; not baking the bread out fully, I’d say around 204-206F internal temp (loaves with more water usually take longer to bake); you might need to decrease the hydration of your dough.
thanks for the tips, I’ll drop my recipe down to around 70 % next time and see how that goes
Hi Maurizio,
Thank you for being my primary sourdough teacher/resource! I’ve made probably ~250 loaves of this recipe over the past handful of years, and of course most of this was probably weekly after the pandemic hit. I just noticed that you’ve updated your recipe slightly in a way which I’ve already come to do on my own…except that you now don’t delay adding the salt like before. Did you find that salt interferes with fermentation more for only those recipes that have added dry or instant yeast rather than using a homegrown starter?
I’d like to reiterate 2 of your tips for your other readers, which I’ve found more invaluable over time: 1) after bulk, move quickly with your hands and bench knife when preshaping/shaping, keeping the total amount of time as little as possible for whenever your skin or tools are in contact with the dough. Treating it like a super hot potato, jerking your fingers/tools away from the dough super fast will help prevent things from sticking everywhere. 2) resist the urge to keep going or overtighten during preshapeing and shaping. As you preshape/shape the ball/boule or batard, the skin is like a thinning water balloon. You can “pop” the skin and then watch all the dough flow out of its own water balloon like skin. Then you’ve got an overhydrated gloppy mess with no intact water balloon holding it together…making it difficult to turn out a crispy flaky crust.
Fantastic to hear that! You can delay adding salt if you’d like, it’s really up to you. I find you can strengthen the dough more effectively by delaying salt (which tightens the dough), or you can add it in the at the beginning to make things easier. In the end, I find it works well either way!
Good insight- Thanks again Maurizio!
I can’t tell you enough how delicious your recipe is to my friends/neighbors, family, and me! I did a side by side comparison against C.R.’s Tartine country loaf … I think your recipe here is even tastier with fluffier crumb and more scrumptious crust (when toasted the next day, the crust’s crunch reminds me of a thin version of chicharrones)! Thank you!!!
Amazing, thank you! So glad to hear all that 🙂
Hi Maurizio – I’ve made your Beginner’s Sourdough several times now (love it!) and eager to try this. Two questions: 1) In the beginner’s recipe, the levain calls for 38g each of starter, ww flour and bread flour and 76g water. But when I used these quantities when I first started, I never got 150g of levain out of it. So I began using 50g/100g in order to get more levain. Wondering your thoughts? 2) Like Joe Murphy noted the time stamps give don’t add up to 15-16 hours so not sure which is the typo your referred to. Which is accurate? And, leaving the loaves in the fridge longer (15-16 hours) – that will just give a stronger sour flavor, correct? Thanks so much for all your wisdom!
So glad to hear that! Answers:
1) Yes, it’s typical to end up with a little less levain, that’s ok. What you did is perfect, make a little more (or not!).
2) Yes, a little longer the fridge will make the sourness more pronounced. A few hours shouldn’t be a huge issue, though. I’ll go back and fix the error!
Happy to help 🙂
I just made this loaf, with 70% hydration wipizza stone and lava rocks.. But my scoring disappear.. Any advice on what I did wrong?
It’s hard to say. It might have been from insufficient steaming in the oven (which would prevent the “ear” from forming), it could have been too much top heat in the oven, or it could have been dough that was under-strengthened and ended up fusing back together…
Hi Maurizio — Back to baking after some time off. Reminded again how great and detailed your instructions are! Thank you. Question: for this best sourdough recipe, you say to proof for 15-16 hours in the fridge, but in the timing of your step-by-step schedule it seems that you are going into the oven in just under 14 hours. The more detailed instructions say proof from 7:25p then bake at 9a and the shortened version 7p – 9a. Am I looking at that right? I think the key point is the 15-16 hours — and just knowing your dough, of course! — but just wanted to check. Hoping to get better spring than my initial attempt last year. Anyway, respect and gratitude for your guidance!
By the way, followed your long term starter storage guide (dried on silpat and put in freezer) and happy to say it survived (seemingly) just fine for about a year and 5 months! Already made the beginner loaf just fine.
Thx, Joe
Thanks, Joe! Sorry, there’s a typo there. The small difference shouldn’t be an issue at all, the fridge chills things out enough to give plenty of leeway. Will fix soon.
Glad the starter storage worked well for you!
Thanks for the comments and happy baking, Joe 🙂
Hi Mauricio,
Sorry if someone else asked this. In you ingredients you make 150g of levain, but in the dough you say 30g ripe starter?
The directions say to add levain from step 1 so I assume it’s 150. 😊
Congratulations on your success with King Arthur. I’ve been a loyal and appreciative follower since the first early blogger days.
Thank you.
Ah, sorry about that, Stephen! It was a typo, I fixed the issue. You’re correct, 150g ripe levain in the final dough mix.
Thanks so much for following along for such a long while! Hope all your bakes are going well 🙂
Thank you Maurizio, what a great recipe! I marvel at how the same four ingredients–flour, water, salt, and starter create such diverse results! This recipe will be my go-to for some time to come, the resulting loaf was extraordinarily delicious, and like you, we sliced up one loaf for the freezer. The crust was crispy, chewy, almost malty, and the crumb open (though not as open as yours in the photo). It was tricky to work with–very sticky–I’ll try a touch less water next time as you advise. Your attention to detail and explicit, clear instructions make it all possible. Plus, my local bakery, the very wonderful Shelley Bay Baker has New Zealand grown organic stone ground flour for sale by the kilo. What a difference it makes to the quality of the bread. When is your book coming out? 🙂
So glad to hear you like my recipe, Marianna! It is an incredible thing, isn’t it? Oh wow, Shelley Bay is near you? I took a class with Sam in San Francisco a few years back, if you see him (the guy with long hair) please say hi from Maurizio!
Book coming out later this year, please subscribe to my newsletter, I’ll announce preorders soon!